


close your eyes and picture the sun

by howlling



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alien Culture, Alien Religion, F/M, Fluff, It got kinda bitter sweet there at the end, KaraMel, Mon-El and Kara celebrate an alien holiday together, i'm not entirely sure what this is it just came spilling out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-21
Updated: 2017-02-21
Packaged: 2018-09-26 01:13:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9855482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/howlling/pseuds/howlling
Summary: “And I think, for me, it’s important to remember, even if I’m the only one, even with Rao no longer in the sky. I think it’s still important.” he says, conviction in his voice, heavy in his chest. “So I will celebrate regardless.”Mon-el is right, though. Even if it’s only them, maybe especiallybecauseit’s only them, that it’s important to remember. Kara toes off her shoes and sits beside him.Or a quiet moment of cultural understanding and remembrance





	

**Author's Note:**

> this is what happens when i write at 2 am

Mon-el is in her apartment when Kara gets home from work. She’s not entirely caught off guard, he comes over sometimes when being at the DEO is too much, or when he wants to see her, but he usually lets her know ahead of time. Still, he’s welcome at her place anytime and she’s glad to see him. 

“Hey, you.” she greets warmly. 

“Hi.” he responds with a smile as he twists around to look at her. All she can view is broad shoulders and up from her angle at the door, but she returns with a smile of her own. Most of him is hidden behind the couch as he sits, kneeling, in front of her living room window. She takes a moment to appreciate the sight of the sun spilling over him before setting her stuff down on the counter with a clatter. 

“Was J’onn driving you crazy again with th-” She stops short when she comes around the couch and sees him. He’s in a low reverential bow, turned towards the sun. The start of the ritual that worshippers of Rao would complete upon the day of the Solstice, a religion both their planets shared.

“Mon-el.” she says as gently as she can. He dips into another bow, head pressed to the ground. “Rao has long been destroyed.”

Mon-el sits back, completing the bow and looks at her, contemplative. “I know.” he says quietly, “But, I thought - well, Jesus wasn’t born in December and your earth family doesn’t profess to Christianity, but you still celebrated the winter holiday, right?” he flashes a quick smile that’s gone too quickly for her to get a read on.

“I- well, right, but-” Kara’s eyes blink rapidly as she tries to come up with a response to that. 

“All of you celebrate it because - because what it stood for was important." he says, fumbling a bit, and it's oddly vulnerable. "It was about - about family and culture and coming together." he tells her. 

"Right." Kara confirms. And she knows what he's getting at, she does. 

“And I think, for me, it’s important to remember, even if I’m the only one, even with Rao no longer in the sky. I think it’s still important.” he says, conviction in his voice, heavy in his chest. “So I will celebrate regardless.” he finishes and his eyes are dark and his face uncharacteristically somber. He looks down at his hands and smiles a bit sheepishly, a bit theatrically. “And your apartment has a west facing window and I thought - well, at least no one would bother me about it here, right?” 

“No, no, of course not.” Kara is quick to reassure. He smiles at her then, slow and soft and genuine.

“Thank you.” he says sincerely and it always kind of throws her, when he sheds that frat boy persona and shows genuine feeling, though it shouldn’t.

“You’re welcome.” she replies automatically. 

He turns back to the window and Kara blows out a careful breath, thinking. She celebrated the Solstice a few times when she first arrived, along with other holidays of her planet, but had fallen out of the practice. It just became easier to celebrate the holidays of her earth family. She knows that the Danvers would have been more than willing to celebrate the holidays of Krypton with her, but...it was something just for her, something only she could understand. Until it became too painful of a reminder.

Mon-el is right, though. Even if it’s only them, maybe especially _because_ it’s only them, that it’s important to remember. And now she has someone who understands the culture, the story behind the solstice celebration, someone who gets why it's important. 

Kara toes off her shoes and then takes up position beside him. He watches her and does not move. 

“What are you doing?” he asks.

“What does it look like?” she responds. She takes a moment to get her legs folded under her, get her balance settled. Then she closes her eyes, and thinks back to how the prayer began, the words still familiar on her tongue after all these years. “Great Rao, Our Father.” she starts and leans forward into the customary bow, muscles stretching. It’s been a long time since she’s done this, but the muscle memory comes easily enough. 

Mon-el takes long enough in reciting the next part that she’s come back to her kneeling position and opens her eyes to look at him, puzzled at the wait. There’s something unfathomable in his eyes and her gaze flicks down to his mouth.

“Sing praises to Rao. May your wisdom shine on us.” he says without looking away from her and she watches his mouth form the words. Then he turns away to lean forward and press his forehead to his hands. 

“Sing praises to Rao. May you keep us warm and our paths bright.” she continues and copies the movement so she doesn’t get caught up in just watching him. 

“May we never suffer want under your sun.” the words are smooth off his tongue, ancient and not forgotten. 

“May we be free of every sort of darkness.” she bows, her eyes closed, breathing deep. 

“Bless us with day.”

“Bless us with light.”

The prayer finished, they sit back and a peacefulness settles between them, interrupted only by the distant noise of traffic below. Yet, it’s not the red light of Rao that warms their skin and Kara suddenly misses it with a sharp, visceral ache. Mon-el said it was important to remember, so she does.

Kara remembers that her mother never celebrated, saying the festival and worship of Rao was nothing more than giving reverence to a ball of superheated plasma. But her father, despite having science bred into his bones, worshiped diligently.

Kara remembers them gently bickering over the subject, the argument familiar, their eyes sparkling. She can recall the slightly musty mat her father had kept rolled up near the window that overlooked the city and faced Rao. The one he would kneel on next to her as they recited the Solstice Prayer together. 

She remembers him saying that science was just another sort of faith, a belief in something not always seen. Kara misses the ways his eyes crinkled when he smiled at her, his hand warm on her back and Rao’s light warm on her face. She can practically hear the low timbre of her father's voice when he spoke “We live in a universe of staggering complexity and infinite wonder, Kara. It would be foolish to assume we have all the answers.”

Kara, her knees braced on the blanket from her couch in the corner of her apartment on a planet so different from her own, is finding it suddenly hard to swallow, grief burning low in her throat. She inhales carefully, shakily, trying to hold on to her composure. Mon-el reaches over and takes her hand, lacing together their fingers and respectfully doesn't mention it when she wipes at her eyes. He brings her hand up to his mouth and places soft kisses to her knuckles, mouthing soft nothings into her skin.

She’s not home on Krypton and it’s not Rao burning bright in the sky. But in this moment, with the soft, yellow sunlight of Sol streaming through the window and Mon-el’s quiet breathing at her side, it is enough.

It is enough.


End file.
